Battle for Kowak

The Battle for Kowak
Date	22.331 — 22.337 (CGT)
Location	Kowak
Result	Coalition victory over criminal elements. Dominion secured control Kowak.
Belligerents
The Antarian Rangers -ARK- Blue Star Dominion DOM Arsenal The Exchange Grand Duchy of Froz The Invid Order Jedi Order Mando'ade Rebel Alliance The Resistance Rogue Squadron Stryker Military Services Ternion Corps TIEFE	Various criminal elements
Commanders and Leaders
Ranger One Char`Cargis Olort Prelate Belwarmec Al-Thorac Hierarch Va`Li Owa Marshal Tomas o`Cuinn Arbiter Kara DuMonte Arbiter Kaze Zill Andre Archer Compeer Mika Noris Trorgg Krogg Jedi Master Thragg Craghorn Mand'alor Kai Oryk High General Ily Zacri General Crueya Vandron General Gand Xitwa Major General Eli Descartes Major General William Siethr Jaria Feri Grand Admiral Jake Azzameen Blot Hlidskjalf John Calay	Various unknown warlords

The Battle for Kowak, also known as Operation Kowak, was the liberation of the planet Kowak from the criminal elements governing it by a large Rebel coalition. The operation officially lasted six days from Day 331 to 337 of Year 22, though clean up operations continued through Day 339 and the establishment of a new civilian government extended further. The Battle for Kowak became one of the most extensive operations in Rebellion history, with more than a dozen groups committing manpower and resources to the campaign.

Events of Battle

Early on Day 331, merchant vessels operating near the Woldona system intercepted urgent cries for help from somewhere deep in the Sevetta sector. These messages were relayed to the Blue Star Dominion, the governing body in the sector, who dispatched reconnaissance teams throughout the Sevetta's uncharted regions to search for the signal's origin. That evening (local time), Dominion Warden Pursh Greene discovered the Kowak system in a StarSpeeder 3000 and sent the astronavigation data back to Dominion headquarters, opening Kowak to greater galactic travel. Pursh's team was able to make contact with the originators of the distress call who described a dire situation on the planet's surface. Like many planets in the deep Outer Rim, Kowak was a neglected world; its location was first described by explorers centuries ago, but it was lost in the shuffle of the nearly-constant discovery of new worlds and the growing prosperity in the Core Worlds. By the modern era, Kowak found itself far off from popular trade routes and saw little intersystem travel or trade. With no allies and little in the way of infrastructure or defense forces, Kowak was an easy target for various criminal cartels that plagued the region and wanted a base of operations beyond the arm of the law.

Greene's attempts to land were met with heavy arms fire and ordinance, forcing her to abort and withdraw to a safe distance from the planet while relaying her findings to the Dominion. Back in Woldona, Marshal Cedron Tryonel reviewed the preliminary reports and made the decision to call in allies to ensure they could not only swiftly handle the situation on Kowak, but also shield the system from potential incursion from opportunists who might attempt to pillage the planet once its location became more widely known. Tryonel made calls to the Dominion's allies in the Rebellion and a coalition was formed to liberate Kowak. Just hours later, vanguard forces from the Dominion and The Exchange arrived, placing a travel restriction on the system to warn outside forces against intervening in the operation. Within twenty-four hours of the vanguard's arrival, additional forces began arriving from other allied groups; the various commanders met aboard the Dominion's Imperial I-class Star Destroyer BSD Bastion to plan their campaign. Dropships with starfighter escorts deployed from the rapidly-growing coalition fleet, with many units using equipment and ships locally supplied by the Dominion or The Resistance until their own could arrive. In the chaos of the assembling fleets and rapidly-changing situation, a C-3 Passenger Liner registered to Smugglers Incorporated and an unknown YT-series light freighter both attempted to enter the system, but were intercepted by Rebel fighter squadrons and escorted away without incident.

On the ground, the situation was brutal; while coalition forces had superior training and equipment on hand, they were heavily outnumbered during the first few days while assaulting fortified positions. The various planetary militias controlled by the criminal gangs and their enforcers were heavily entrenched and proved ferocious adversaries. The planet's minimal development had also resulted in an overabundance of local wildlife with overaggressive tendencies. It took two standard days of fighting for the ground forces led by Dominion Aribter Kara DuMonte to secure a safe landing zone on the planet. The Dominion led the first wave of attacks in the southern hemisphere, while the Exchange and the Resistance launched nearby assaults soon after. Engineering teams were able to establish fortifications and a command post for the coalition, which would direct combat operations throughout the southern hemisphere. Given the difficulty of fighting both aquatic creatures and amphibious pirate forces, naval warfare was delegated to the DOM Arsenal and their specialized marine commandos.

On Day 333, the Void Wolves arm of the terrorist Zann Consortium announced to the galaxy that it was in touch with and providing support to the Kowakian cartels. However, no evidence was ever uncovered linking the Void Wolves to the various gangs and enterprises on Kowak, and the nature of their support remains a mystery. Ultimately, any alleged support was eventually proven to be of little effect as the tide quickly turned against the cartels and the planet was secured by Rebel forces.

By Day 334, the coalition fleet had organized itself under the command of Dominion Arbiter Kaze Zill and established patrols of both the system and outlying coordinates around the clock. Nearby asteroid fields were scouted for lurking pirates and an array of satellites were placed to monitor the entire system for incursion. Late on Day 334, the final incursion into the system occurred when the Retribution, a Crusader-class corvette registered to Spectre, arrived and set course for planetary orbit. Unresponsive to direct hails and warnings, the ship was assumed to be flying on autopilot or its captain was undeterred by the allied fleet. A squadron of A-wings commanded by Bram Dupol of The Resistance fired warning shots across the corvette's bow, which swiftly changed course and departed the system.

Hour by hour throughout the operation, allied ships arrived in Kowak carrying additional starships, personnel, and equipment from more than a dozen Rebel groups. These reinforcements quickly changed the situation on the ground; now, with the numerical advantage in many instances, coalition forces combed through Kowak's dense jungles and coordinated with bombers and fighter craft for air support as, one-by-one, the cartel strongholds fell. By Day 337, the Rebel coalition had eliminated or captured the last of the criminal warlords; Marshal Tomas o`Cuinn declared a victorious outcome and an end to formal operations. Fighting continued in the more remote regions through Day 339 when The Resistance and the other allies began to establish plans to withdraw and depart, leaving the Dominion to work with the local population and establish a government of their own.

Behind the Scenes

OOC: The Battle for Kowak was a massive multi-faction operation led by the Blue Star Dominion and featured 15 total Rebellion-aligned faction groups who contributed 97 total players to the campaign. Kowak became the first system to feature both ground and space Player vs Player combat in the game. Additional game-wide changes were implemented because of and during Kowak, including aggressive behavior for bandits/creatures and requiring a planetary grid to be cleared of all NPC enemies before allowing a city slab to be created. Additionally, horizontal travel for ships was disabled on the planetary surface, identical to Derra. The coordinates for the Kowak system were accidentally leaked with the addition of the Kowakian Monkey-Lizard creature, and the system was manually revealed to the galaxy shortly after arrival of the first player, bypassing the typical 7-day reveal timer for hidden systems.